Fake or not, when Amy helped out Nicole when that's really a no-no under the competitive nature of TAR, that was enough for them to be one of my favorites this season. Had it been a scenario that could've put them in danger, then that's another story, but neither team was last.

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Every reality star is someone's favorite

Winning isn't everything, but it isn't considered nothing either. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a tribal council, a pit-stop, a boardroom, dimming of the lights, and so on

I just never felt like this team should win. They were good, yes, but not outstanding. They were just regular and did well, but the RB in this task made the difference. Too much lead she got from this. Liked them, but not love them.

I just never felt like this team should win. They were good, yes, but not outstanding. They were just regular and did well, but the RB in this task made the difference. Too much lead she got from this. Liked them, but not love them.

Congrats, guys!

Totally agree! After Tokyo, I was actually starting to lean towards Tim and Marie for taking the prize home!They got so much lead in the roadblock in Alaska it was already boring when that RB was over. But still so thrilled they won. At least they were better than the Goat Farmers.

I just never felt like this team should win. They were good, yes, but not outstanding. They were just regular and did well, but the RB in this task made the difference. Too much lead she got from this. Liked them, but not love them.

Congrats, guys!

Totally agree! After Tokyo, I was actually starting to lean towards Tim and Marie for taking the prize home!They got so much lead in the roadblock in Alaska it was already boring when that RB was over. But still so thrilled they won. At least they were better than the Goat Farmers.

OMG, I don't know why, but THIS was the same with me. The whole race I was a fan of Tim/Marie, but I always like Jamy more and wanted THEM to win. However, when the final 3 was clear, I was also hoping for a Marie win.

I just never felt like this team should win. They were good, yes, but not outstanding. They were just regular and did well, but the RB in this task made the difference. Too much lead she got from this. Liked them, but not love them.

Congrats, guys!

Totally agree! After Tokyo, I was actually starting to lean towards Tim and Marie for taking the prize home!They got so much lead in the roadblock in Alaska it was already boring when that RB was over. But still so thrilled they won. At least they were better than the Goat Farmers.

I just never felt like this team should win. They were good, yes, but not outstanding. They were just regular and did well, but the RB in this task made the difference. Too much lead she got from this. Liked them, but not love them.

Congrats, guys!

.... your avatar just made it seems like Marie is the one who say the words. LOL

Logged

Got along without you before I met you, Gonna get along without you now.

‘Amazing Race’ winners ready to hit the road again — at their own pace

BY ANDY SMITH

Reality check: Who’s who in R.I.’s constellation of reality-TV starsAfter nine countries and 35,000 miles, you’d think Providence’s Amy Diaz and boyfriend Jason Case of Attleboro, winners of the CBS TV reality show “The Amazing Race,” would be sick and tired of travel.Apparently not.In a phone interview Monday morning, while the couple was on a train from New England to New York City, the two said they planned to use part of their $1-million first prize to do some traveling.“‘The Amazing Race’ was not a vacation,” Case said. “It’s all about stress, focus, concentration.”“Stress is not even the right word for it,” Diaz said.So the pair plan a more leisurely look at some of the countries they sped through during the race, such as Portugal.“The Amazing Race” is a grueling marathon in which teams of two travel around the world while competing in a series of tasks that range from eating snake meat to performing as human bowling balls on a Japanese game show.The last team to arrive at most of the “pit stops” is eliminated, until the race gets down to the final three pairs.Diaz, 29, was Miss Rhode Island USA in 2008 and Miss Rhode Island Teen USA in 2001. She now works as a freelance social-media manager, which she described as maintaining profiles on social media networks for business clients. Case, 33, owns a snowplow company, Case Snow Management.Diaz told WBZ NewsRadio that the pair had only been dating for about a month when they initially applied to be on “The Amazing Race.” (Now they’ve been together for about 18 months).In the cast bios released by “The Amazing Race,” both Diaz and Case said that, besides winning $1 million, they wanted to see if working together on “The Amazing Race” would prove the strength of their relationship.So now that they’ve won, are wedding bells ringing?“We are still on a high from ‘The Amazing Race,’” said Diaz on Monday. “If we’re going to be married, we want that to be a different experience. We would want those events to be separate from each other.”“Marriage is a step in our future,” Case said.“It is?” said Diaz.“The Amazing Race” was filmed in June and July, but the finale did not air until Sunday night, and under the strict rules governing reality-show contestants, they had to keep the secret until the show aired.“The race was 10 times harder than we ever thought it would be,” said Case. “There’s really no way to train for it. The best planning you can do is to understand how to work better together. … We really had to learn quickly how each of us competes in a stressful environment. We’re both tough competitors. By the end of the race, we were a powerhouse.”The toughest part of the trek, Diaz said, was in the United Arab Emirates, when the pair got lost for two precious hours, and she found herself in the uncomfortable position of backseat driver.But Diaz and Case were mostly models of cooperation and support throughout the race. That was a stark contrast to the second-place finishers, the bickering Timothy Sweeney and Marie Mazzocchi, a former couple who made it clear they were racing strictly for the money and had no intention of getting back together.Speaking of money, Diaz and Case said they are aware of what happened to Rhode Island’s most famous reality-show contestant, Richard Hatch, who won the first season of “Survivor” and eventually went to jail for failing to pay taxes on his $1-million prize.“One of our first phone calls was to an accountant,” said Diaz. “Neither one of us would look good in stripes, or an orange jumpsuit.”

Boston strong couple Jason Case, 34, and Amy Diaz, 29, met in a Rhode Island hookah bar, dated for 18 months, and then decided to test their skills and their relationship by applying for "The Amazing Race 23." Six months later, their love affair is still going strong, an engagement is imminent, and their bank accounts are healthier, thanks to avoiding Philimination. Yahoo TV spoke exclusively with this season's winners Monday while they were on a train to New York about the highs and lows of the competition, their controversial alliance, and how the race affected their bond.

How does it feel to finally be able to tell people you won?

Amy: We are so relieved. Our moms needed tranquilizers throughout the entire season and definitely last night.

Jason: It was really tough not to tell anyone, but it was harder not to mess up and give anything away. People would try to trick us and ask questions to try to figure out if we'd won or lost. Amy and I were very prepared for that. We had a great poker face for the last few months, so we completely blew people's minds when we won. They had no idea.

Looking back, are there specific moments you can point to that sealed the deal on your win?

Amy: Obviously, [the moment] when I dropped the flour was pretty epic. But we still didn't know how far behind the other teams were. There were helicopters in the air, and we didn't know if they were in those or not. Once we were doing the totem poles, we realized we had quite a bit of a lead. We were a little over halfway through when Tim and Marie arrived. And when we got the next clue, Travis and Nicole had just gotten there. There was probably an hour and 20 minutes between us and Tim and Marie and two and half from [the doctors].

Jason: I felt it back in Indonesia when we missed that train with Tim and Marie, were an hour behind the three other teams and we caught up. That was a huge moment for us. And the following leg, when we did the makeup challenge and finally got our first-place finish, I thought we really came together at that point. We were getting better as other teams were progressively getting worse. We blossomed at the right moment.

Was there a lowest moment of the race when you thought you were done for?

Amy: We were really frustrated that we had come in second place so many times. Then the one chance we got where we thought we'd get a first place for sure was the Fast Forward, and that didn't turn out very good for us, either. We had to play catch-up then, and when the train left on us, we thought, "Really? Is this happening to us again?" We really felt like we were done, especially because our season was really competitive. If you look at the times teams checked in and out of pit stops, first and second was only minutes, if not seconds, apart. And most of the time, all teams were checked in within the same hour. When an Express Pass was used, we still only checked in, like, 15 seconds after them. So when you know the next train isn't for an hour, it is discouraging. It gave us the same feeling as we had on the first leg when we caught the second flight. We knew one of us was going home.

A lot of viewers questioned your alliance with the doctors, especially when Amy stayed to help Nicole finish Road Blocks. Did that alliance help you? Do you regret helping them?

Amy: Our relationship started back on leg two. We helped each other. She didn't have her mat during the shoeshining. I told her what was wrong, and she let me read her clue when I lost mine. From there, we became a little family. I did it because I really, really loved them. That was initial instinct, and we realized as the race went on that we were becoming stronger, and Travis and Nicole were becoming disappointed with each other and falling apart a little bit.

Jason: We witnessed their mental breakdown.

Amy: We capitalized on it when we realized it was happening. My heart wanted to help and my head knew it was smart. When I helped her, we knew we weren't getting first because the other teams had already left. We wanted the two of us to be at the end because if we didn't win, we wanted them to win. But we knew on the last leg we were mentally stronger.

Jason: And physically too. Bringing them along to the final stretch was also an advantage for us because we were a stronger team at that point.

What was your favorite challenge, experience, place visited?

Amy: We absolutely loved Portugal, so we hope to use our money to travel through Portugal, and I will probably drag Jay to the "Sound of Music" tour in Austria. Indonesia was a highlight for me because we finally got first place, and I got to play dress-up with Jay and make him up like he was my little doll.

Jason: I can tell you that we're not doing that bungee jumping if we ever go back there.

Least favorite?

Amy: Pretty sure Jason's was me being a backseat driver.

Jason: I had a few. One was that the race goes by so fast that you don't really get to experience and really take in the sights around you. We were so focused on going fast. I also didn't like driving in the U.A.E. We didn't know where we were going, and Amy was barking at me from the back seat. It was our first really bad mental breakdown, but overcoming that and finishing strong gave us motivation for the rest of the race.

When we talked before you left to race, Amy said that you had agreed on a 60-40 split so that you could buy her a ring, propose, and pay for a wedding. Is that still the deal, and have you popped the question? (Amy can't stop laughing.)

Jason: No, it hasn't happened yet. We do have a bright future ahead of us, and we're excited about that. But to me, they are two different moments, and we want to share this as the "Amazing Race" part of our lives and celebrate these emotions. Our relationship is a different experience. I don't want to merge the two together.

But participating didn't break you up, did it?

Jason: No. Like every relationship, we've had our ups and downs. We had no idea if the show would bring us closer together or break us up. There were a lot of unknowns for the both of us, but I feel now that our bond is strong. Having gone through this process and having all of this exposure right now, we have to support each other and be strong as a couple.

Amy: It did wonders for our relationship. We had only been together for a little over a year when we left for the race, and we learned so much about each other as competitors, people, and as a couple. There is no communication with the outside world, and it's only the two of you 24/7 for a month, so we now know more about how we react to situations, our values, our beliefs. A lot of times you don't learn these things until you've been together for five or 10 years. Sometimes even a lifetime. This really fast-forwards the entire relationship.

When you do get married, are your fellow racers invited?

Amy: Absolutely. The friendships will last way longer than the race. Nicole and Travis came to my mom's house for Thanksgiving, and the cast had a reunion in Rhode Island this weekend. We are now on the train to New York to spend another couple of days together.

Jason: We were blessed and honored to run this with such amazing people, from Oklahoma to NFL to the beards. Even Tim and Marie, as feisty as they were. We will probably use some of the money to travel and see some of these people, meet their families, and continue the relationships. Nobody else experienced TAR 23 with us, and it was once in a lifetime.

Congrats to Jason and Amy, winners of The Amazing Race 23! Read on as they talk about their high and low points from the Race, and if marriage is in their future!

Nicole L: Is Jason going to ask Amy to marry him?Jason: Thanks for putting me on the spot, Nicole! lol Amy and I certainly have a future together. The Amazing Race was only one chapter in our lives and right now we are enjoying the emotional experience of it all.

Josh P: Amy, what does it feel like to be the first beauty pageant girl in Amazing Race history to win the Race?Amy: I am thrilled, Josh!!! Pageants have been a part of my life for 16 years, and much of my competitive spirit derives from competing for so many years. I am proud to show that a person can compete and still keep true to his/her values. When I speak to young women interested in competing, I always try to instill in them the principle that "competitions" are about competing with yourself, not the other competitors. They are about becoming the very best version of yourself without wasting any time worrying about others. You can't control what others do or don't do. Understanding that I was my only competition, both in the race and in pageants, is what contributed to my successes and always made me feel comfortable helping others along the way.

Debbie S: Amy and Jason worked really well as a team. Did they have any serious conflicts?Jason: Thanks, Debbie. Being a dating couple was a challenge in itself while on the Amazing Race. We certainly had our moments of frustration and conflict, but what made us a consistent team was our ability to overcome and persevere through those intense situations and stay focused. We each have dominant personalities which typically tend to clash in stressful environments. Al Ain was a leg we bickered more than usual. Having been lost for 2 hours didn't stop Amy from yelling at me from the back seat. We hit a breaking point, but knowing "Providence Amy's" personality, I tried to remain calm which diffused the situation and we were able to still finished second behind an express pass.Amy: Debbie, me being a backseat driver was bad for our team! Haha

Lori M: Congratulations to Jason and Amy for winning and playing gracefully. What was the hardest and easiest leg of the race and why?Jason: Hi Lori, thanks! Most legs were really tough. The easiest leg of the race seemed to be Portugal. We didn't have difficulty with the Road Block or the Detour, and breezed through them quickly. One wrong turn did cost us first place. I think Amy has forgiven me for that one. The toughest leg, physically, was Norway. The fish head challenge took a lot of strength and endurance fighting against the Arctic weather, swimming in the 40-degree water and having to find our way to the Viking Longhouse with no directions at 2AM (while the sun was still shining) made it a leg that separated the stronger teams from others.Amy: Thanks, Lori! (BTW- Lori is also my best friends's name! HA!) The Amazing Race is hard! I don't think any of the legs were "easy", but we did feel very confident during Leg 1 in Iquique, because I am fluent in Spanish and Jason rowed crew in prep school. Getting around, communicating with locals and completing the Road Blocks were not as challenging. Based on the teams' "leg time" (the time teams arrived at the airport in Iquique and the time they checked in at the mat during that leg), Jason and I finished that leg just as fast as the top teams. It was unfortunate we didn't arrive to LAX in time to get on the first flight because if we had, we were definitely contenders to earn those Express Passes! The toughest leg for me...it's a toss up between Al Ain and Alaska. Al Ain was mentality tough for me because we were required to drive ourselves around a place where we had the most communication barriers. Not only did we not speak or understand any of the language, but as I woman who wanted to remain respectful of the culture, I really did not feel comfortable speaking on our team's behalf (which I had done the entire race) while doing research and asking for directions. All these elements contributed to my mini mental breakdown while being a terrible backseat driver! In Alaska, my sprained ankle was a big struggle during the glacier and crevasse tasks. I was in so much pain every time I had to stomp and dig my ice cleats. Since Leg 6, when I first got hurt in Vienna, I hadn't put so much pressure on that foot. I limped half of the entire Race and I am happy I muscled through it and never let it set our team behind.

Margaret B: Amy and Jason were all class. They did a fantastic job and deserved to win. What is next for the two of you?Amy: Thank you, Margaret! At this moment we are still on Cloud 9 and haven't given it much thought, but as an adventurer, I am open to exploring amazing opportunities!Jason: I would like to spend some time traveling with Amy. The race has opened my eyes to the great big world we live in and I feel a little exploration would be fun. Continuing to prosper with my business, and hoping to start a family soon are also on the list. If any opportunities arise we will certainly consider them, hoping for an all winners season of TAR in the future!

Sarah-Ann K: What do Jason and Amy plan to do with the million dollars?Jason: Hi Sarah, believe it not, we have not put too much thought into that yet. I would enjoy visiting our fellow cast members and meeting their families. We were blessed to have raced with incredible people and the most genuine I have ever come across, and yes even Marie is not so bad.Amy: Goodness, what not to do with a million dollars, Sarah? Travel has always been a huge part of my life! Before the race, I had visited 18 countries, and I hope to continue to explore the world. As Jason mentioned, we became close to other teams, in fact we celebrated Thanksgiving with Travis and Nicole, and we spent the Finale weekend with several of the other teams, so we hope to visit their hometowns and meet their families and friends. Finally, my life motto is, "A woman who serves is a woman who leads", therefore, being involved with several charitable organizations is my other great passion and takes up much of my time, so I look forward to being able to contribute more than just my time with the winnings!

Ralph E: Jason and Amy, You had some of the best sportsmanship of any race yet. You deserved the win most of all winners. What is your secret to staying so calm throughout the race?Jason: Thank you, Ralph! Amy and I didn't choose to run the race any particular way. What you watched was us being ourselves during everyday situations. We are very caring and loving people, and our hope is to have inspired others to be that way. I'm not sure if there is a secret to staying calm other than using common sense and thinking methodically and not emotionally. Keeping our poise and focus really helped us to be a better team and even better teammates. The key to the game is keeping your composure and working together not against each other.Amy: Ralph, of course winning the Race was obviously the highlight of the experience, but in all honesty, I am most proud of the way we played the game! We formed great bonds/friendships with several of the other teams, played with integrity, never gave up or made excuses, but instead worked together and we persevered through unforeseen circumstances that were out of our control. We used all of our second-place finishes as motivation to continue to stay on top without the advantage of any race "shortcuts" (passes, use of u-turns, etc.) Additionally, being aware of how to play smart- not ever switching Detours, analyzing our surroundings before choosing who would complete Road Blocks, asking tons of questions while in taxis, and doing a lot of research on the internet before arriving in our next destination- made us feel very prepared and confident and therefore, didn't lead to many mistakes. Going into the final leg, Jason and I held our heads high and felt proud to have played well and to have played honorably. Win or lose, we already felt like winners.

Jason and Amy: Thank you all for your questions and we appreciate you watching this season of The Amazing Race!!!